1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data integration applications, and, more specifically, to debugging data integration applications using synthetic data values.
2. Discussion of Related Art
When a database system is upgraded or replaced, the existing data must be transferred to the new system. This process, called data migration, is becoming increasingly expensive as database systems become larger and more complex. Planning and executing a data migration consumes valuable resources and can often result in considerable downtime. Also, mistakes in data migration can lead to data corruption, which is not an acceptable risk for institutions that handle sensitive data.
These difficulties are compounded when it is necessary to combine data from several different data storage systems, a process known as data integration. Data integration applications must reconcile data from several potentially incompatible storage systems, convert these data into a unified format, and load the new data into the target database. These are complicated tasks, and they require careful planning and detailed knowledge of the structure of the source databases. Errors in data integration are common, difficult to diagnose, and expensive to fix.
In the past, data integration applications have typically been developed for a specific database upgrade or merger task, and they become useless after this task is complete. This ad hoc approach makes it impossible to reuse program code, substantially increasing the cost of development. Also, it tends to produce applications that are written from scratch and not comprehensively tested, increasing the likelihood of data corruption.
In light of these problems, there exists a need for an improved method of developing database applications that minimizes the costs and risks associated with data migration and data integration.